Mineral del Monte, commonly called Real del Monte () or El Real, is a small

mining town A mining community, also known as a mining town or a mining camp, is a community that houses miners. Mining communities are usually created around a mine or a quarry. Historic mining communities Australia * Ballarat, Victoria * Bendigo, ...

, and one of the 84

municipalities of Hidalgo Hidalgo (state), Hidalgo is a Administrative divisions of Mexico#States, state in central Mexico divided into 84 municipalities of Mexico, municipalities. According to the 2020 Mexican Census, Hidalgo is the States of Mexico, 16th most populous st ...

, in the

State of Hidalgo Hidalgo (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Hidalgo ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Hidalgo) is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, constitute the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into 84 municipalities ...

in east-central

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. It is located at an

altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...

of . As of 2005, the municipality had a total population of 11,944 — with Mauricio Rodriguez Téllez as head of the municipal council.

History

The Mine District of Pachuca—Real del Monte has a long and rich heritage. The mines in the district are conservatively estimated to have produced 1.2 billion Troy ounces of silver and 6.2 million ounces of gold. That is 6% of the silver mined throughout the world during the last five centuries. Some of the mines have continued limited production until the present day.

Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

and

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

were discovered after the

Spanish conquest of Mexico The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, also known as the Conquest of Mexico or the Spanish-Aztec War (1519–21), was one of the primary events in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. There are multiple 16th-century narratives of the eve ...

in the 1520s. The Colonial Spanish began

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

in the 16th century in the Pachuca area, but the mines were suffering from flooding by 1725. In 1741,

Pedro Romero de Terreros Pedro Romero de Terreros (1710–1781), the first Count of Regla, was a mining magnate and philanthropist in 18th century Mexico. Early life Pedro Romero de Terreros was born in Cortegana, Spain, on June 28, 1710, the fifth (of six) child and ...

and Jose Alejandro Bustamante started a drainage program using an

adit An adit (from Latin ''aditus'', entrance) is an entrance to an underground mine which is horizontal or nearly horizontal, by which the mine can be entered, drained of water, ventilated, and minerals extracted at the lowest convenient level. Adits ...

. The native Mexican Amerindians were often enslaved to work the mines, despite the Royal mandate for Colonial

Jesuit Reductions The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

and later Franciscan

Indian Reductions Reductions ( es, reducciones, also called ; , pl. ) were settlements created by Spanish rulers and Roman Catholic missionaries in Spanish America and the Spanish East Indies (the Philippines). In Portuguese-speaking Latin America, such red ...

. In addition, Africans were imported to replace Indian slaves. The Real del Monte 1766 Strike is considered by many to be the first real labor strike in North American history. The town's steep streets, stairways and small squares are lined with low buildings, some dating back to the Spanish colonial

Viceroyalty of New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Amer ...

period (1500s - 1810). The older houses with high sloping roofs and

chimney A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typic ...

s in town show the 19th century Cornish and English influence.

19th-century Cornish miners

Mining

The Cornish role in the development of Mexican silver mining is significant. The Cornish brought "new" mining technology of the

industrial revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

in the 1820s, reviving Mexican silver mining. Especially important was British equipment to drain mine tunnels flooded by

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidate ...

since the Spanish period. The majority of immigrant miners came from the Cornish Central Mining District of

Camborne Camborne ( kw, Kammbronn) is a town in Cornwall, England. The population at the 2011 Census was 20,845. The northern edge of the parish includes a section of the South West Coast Path, Hell's Mouth and Deadman's Cove. Camborne was formerl ...

Redruth Redruth ( , kw, Resrudh) is a town and civil parishes in Cornwall, civil parish in Cornwall, England. The population of Redruth was 14,018 at the 2011 census. In the same year the population of the Camborne-Redruth urban area, which also inc ...

Gwennap Gwennap ( kw, Lannwenep (village), Pluw Wenep (parish)) is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is about five miles (8 km) southeast of Redruth. Hamlets of Burncoose, Comford, Coombe, Gwennap, Coomb ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

. The Cornish firm that ran the Real del Monte-Pachuca mines between 1824 and 1848, employed 350 Cornish miners and, when the mines were in full operation, the municipality was once the richest in the state. One of the leading personalities in 19th-century Mexico mining was

Francis Rule Francis Rule (1835 – 24 June 1925) was a Cornish miner who moved to Mexico and became immensely wealthy by using pumping equipment to explore previously flooded and abandoned mines. He found and exploited rich seams of silver and use the fund ...

, from

in Cornwall. Known as ''El Rey de la Plata'' (Silver King), Rule left a mark on the Pachucan cityscape, with civic generosity to his adopted homeland. His opinion could be a barometer for the rise and fall of mining shares. He became very wealthy from his numerous mining interests in the district. One was the Santa Gertrudis Mine, which by 1898 was one of the most productive in the State of Hidalgo under Cornish management. Four extant Cornish mine engine houses, and the 'English' Cemetery (''Panteon Inglés'') containing the graves of hundreds of Cornishmen in

Pachuca Pachuca (; ote, Nju̱nthe), formally known as Pachuca de Soto, is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of Hidalgo. It is located in the south-central part of the state. Pachuca de Soto is also the name of the municipality of whic ...

, bear witness to the Cornish contributions to Mexican silver mining for over a century. The cemetery is undergoing restoration following storm damage in 2016.

Sports

It was the Cornish who first introduced

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

/football to

(Pachuca). The first game of what would go on to be Mexico's national past time (''futbol''), was first played in Mexico by Cornish miners at Pachuca in 1900, a fact that is celebrated each year. The first soccer club in the country, the Pachuca Athletic Club, was also founded in that year. The first team consisted of Charles Dawe, John Dawe, James Bennetts, John Bennetts, William Blamey, Richard Sobey, William Bragg, William Thomas, Percy Bunt, Lionel Bunt, Albert Pengelly and William Pengelly, a decidedly 'Cornish' team. The Pachuca club encouraged the formation of teams in Mexico City and

Orizaba Orizaba () is a city and municipality in the Mexican state of Veracruz. It is located 20 km west of its sister city Córdoba, and is adjacent to Río Blanco and Ixtaczoquitlán, on Federal Highways 180 and 190. The city had a 2005 census ...

, the first championship was played in 1902 and 'El Pachuca' won the 1904-05 tournament. Also

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

polo Polo is a ball game played on horseback, a traditional field sport and one of the world's oldest known team sports. The game is played by two opposing teams with the objective of scoring using a long-handled wooden mallet to hit a small hard ...

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

among other sports, were introduced here.

Methodism Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's br ...

was introduced to Roman Catholic Mexico by the Cornish upon their arrival, and most of the descendants of the Cornish in Real del Monte and

are of

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

faith. They brought Methodist Christianity to other major Mexican cities as they relocated. Mexican remittances helped to build the Wesleyan Chapel in Redruth, Cornwall, in the 1820s.

Geology

The Pachuca-Mineral del Monte silver mining district is at the southern end of a metalliferous mineral zone that extends northwest to encompass Mineral del Chico to the Zimapan lead-mining district to the northwest. The

ore deposit Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit.Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ore". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 April 2 ...

s occur in the

volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...

Tertiary Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...

Pachuca Group, principally

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomi ...

rhyolite Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals (phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The mineral ...

flow series with intervening

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock cont ...

beds. The deposits are

epithermal Hydrothermal circulation in its most general sense is the circulation of hot water (Ancient Greek ὕδωρ, ''water'',Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with th ...

sulfide minerals The sulfide minerals are a class of minerals containing sulfide (S2−) or disulfide (S22−) as the major anion. Some sulfide minerals are economically important as metal ores. The sulfide class also includes the selenides, the tellurides, the ...

within steeply dipping

normal fault In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

veins Veins are blood vessels in humans and most other animals that carry blood towards the heart. Most veins carry deoxygenated blood from the tissues back to the heart; exceptions are the pulmonary and umbilical veins, both of which carry oxygenated b ...

Acanthite Acanthite is a form of silver sulfide with the chemical formula Ag2S. It crystallizes in the monoclinic system and is the stable form of silver sulfide below . Argentite is the stable form above that temperature. As argentite cools below that tem ...

and

argentite In mineralogy, argentite (from the Latin ''argentum'', silver) is cubic silver sulfide (Ag2S), which can only exist at temperatures above 173 °C, 177 °C or 179 °C. When it cools to ordinary temperatures it turns into its monocl ...

are the principal silver ore minerals. Between 1973 through 1981, Compania De Real Del Monte Y Pachuca, S.A., produced 24,762,667.2

Troy ounces Troy weight is a system of units of mass that originated in 15th-century England, and is primarily used in the precious metals industry. The troy weight units are the grain, the pennyweight (24 grains), the troy ounce (20 pennyweights), and the ...

of silver and 133,950.33 Troy ounces of gold. The richest vein of silver was the Veta Vizcaina, or the Vizcaina Vein, which extended 5 km to the east of Real del Monte. Productive mines along this vein included the San Francisco, Santa Agueda (1767), Santa Teresa (1734), La Joya (1734), San Cayetano (1751), Dolores (1734), and La Palma (1734). By 1750, Pedro Terreros had control of this lucrative vein. Production continued until the mid-1770s. File:Pachuca USGS Geology Map.png, Pachuca USGS

Geologic map A geologic map or geological map is a special-purpose map made to show various geological features. Rock units or geologic strata are shown by color or symbols. Bedding planes and structural features such as faults, folds, are shown with st ...

of the Pachuca, Mineraldel Monte and Mineral del Chico area File:Pachuca USGS Geology Map Legend.png, Pachuca USGS Geologic map legend File:Pachuca USGS Geology Map Cross Section.png, North-South Geologic Cross Section through Pachuca

Tourism

Real del Monte was named a "''

Pueblo Mágico In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...

''" by the federal government, for its unique historical qualities, aesthetics, and traditions. There are significant examples of Spanish Colonial architecture, in individual buildings and via the overall

cityscape In the visual arts, a cityscape (urban landscape) is an artistic representation, such as a painting, drawing, print or photograph, of the physical aspects of a city or urban area. It is the urban equivalent of a landscape. ''Townscape'' is ...

, that are preserved in the town.

Little Cornwall

The twin silver mining settlements of

and Real del Monte (Mineral del Monte) in the State of Hidalgo have been marketed as 'Mexico's Little Cornwall' by the Mexican Embassy in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

since 2007. This represents the first attempt by the Spanish-speaking part of the

Cornish diaspora The Cornish diaspora ( kw, keskar kernewek) consists of Cornish people and their descendants who emigrated from Cornwall, United Kingdom. The diaspora is found within the United Kingdom, and in countries such as the United States, Canada, Austral ...

to establish formal links with Cornwall. The

Town Council voted on 19 July 2007 to twin with Pachuca and on 16 August 2007 a public meeting confirmed the earlier decision of

Town Council to twin with Real del Monte. The formal twinning ceremony took place at Mineral del Monte in July 2008 during the visit of the Cornish Mexican Cultural Society. PastesTejadaRealMonte

;''Paste'' Real del Monte is a home of the paste in Mexico, with 30 ''paste'' producers in the town. A little larger than cocktail pasties common to the UK, the Mexican-made versions are widely varied including: meat and potato, black bean, shredded chicken, and sausage, all heavily laced with chillies plus a range of sweet pasties including: pineapple, apple, strawberry, and blackberry. A number have developed into national chains with shops in towns and cities across Mexico. The town of Real del Monte is the site of a museum of Cornish pasties, opened in 2011.i (newspaper) October 19, 2015; Cornwall's pride wrapped up in pastry; Adam Lusher (pp. 26-27) ;International Pasty Festival In October 2009 the town of Real del Monte (twinned with Redruth, Cornwall) held the first

International Pasty Festival The International Pasty Festival ( es, Festival Internacional del Paste) is an annual festival celebrating the pasty that has been held in Real del Monte, Hidalgo, Mexico since 2009. Pasties (known locally as '' pastes''), were introduced to the r ...

(Festival Internacional del Paste). Organised by the Municipality of Real del Monte, the paste producers and the Cornish Mexican Cultural Society Chapter Mexico, the Festival was a great success drawing an estimated 8,000 visitors to the town for the three-day event. A coach of visitors travelled from Cuernavaca, some four hours away, and another from Mexico City. The Festival was opened by the President Municipal of Real del Monte, Ing. Omar Mariano Skewes. During the opening speeches it was stated that ‘ Cornish people rebuilt our shattered mining industry giving us work and now again, when we have lost that industry, the Cornish have given us pastes and a new source of income’. As is usual on festival days in this town, the programme commenced with a visit to the Cornish Cemetery and a guided tour by Bridget Galsworthy of the British Society, followed by wreath-laying at the Miner´s Monument. The main street was transformed with a long line of tented stands where ‘pastes’ of all descriptions were produced and a large stage next to the Miners' Memorial provided dance and other entertainments throughout the Festival.

Notable citizens

At the end of the 19th century, the engineer Andrés Aldasoro worked in the Las dos Estrellas mine. Two of his sons, Juan Pablo Aldasoro and Eduardo Aldasoro Suárez, were born in Mineral del Monte. As adults, they became pioneers in

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air ...

, and both became members of the

Early Birds of Aviation Gallery The Early Birds of Aviation is an organization devoted to the history of early pilots. The organization was started in 1928 and accepted a membership of 598 pioneering aviators. Membership was limited to ...

Alfred C. Crowle Alfred Charles Crowle ( surname rhymes with ''roll'' like Kroll) (30 November 1889 – 27 August 1979) was a Mexican Technical Director to Selección de fútbol de México (Mexico national football team). Born in Mexico, he was the son of tin mi ...

was the Cornish born

miner A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face; cutting, blasting, ...

who emigrated to

and in 1935 became manager to the national

Mexican football team The Mexico national football team () represents Mexico in international football and is governed by the Mexican Football Federation (). It competes as a member of CONCACAF. Mexico has qualified to seventeen World Cups and has qualified consec ...

. John Edgar Benjamin Vial was a Cornish-Mexican who fought in the British Imperial Forces during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He died in the

Battle of Somme The Battle of the Somme ( French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place be ...

. For his service he received the

British War Medal The British War Medal is a campaign medal of the United Kingdom which was awarded to officers and men of British and Imperial forces for service in the First World War. Two versions of the medal were produced. About 6.5 million were struck in si ...

and the Victory Medal. There is a monument in his honor at the ''Panteon Inglés''.

Gallery

File:Monumento al Minero, Real de Monte, Hgo..JPG, Monument to the Miner File:Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción en Real del Monte, Hidalgo, México.jpg, Parish church of Nuestra Señora del Rosario (Our Lady of the Rosary) File:IglesiaRealdelMonte.JPG, Church's two towers, one in Spanish style, other in "English" style File:InsideRosarioChurchRealMonte.JPG, Interior of Nuestra Señora del Rosario. File:Mina de Acosta, Real del Monte, Hidalgo, México, 2013-10-10, DD 04.JPG, Channel within the mine File:Mina de Acosta, Real del Monte, Hidalgo, México, 2013-10-10, DD 05.JPG, Structure to get down to the mine of Acosta File:Mina de Acosta, Real del Monte, Hidalgo, México, 2013-10-10, DD 07.JPG, Mine of Acosta File:ExHospitalMinero.JPG, The former miners' hospital, now the ''Museo de Medicina Laboral'' (Museum of Occupational Medicine) File:Panteón Inglés, Real del Monte, Hidalgo, México, 2013-10-10, DD 03.JPG, ''Panteon Inglés'' (English Cemetery) File:Panteón Inglés, Real del Monte, Hidalgo, México, 2013-10-10, DD 07.JPG, ''Panteon Inglés''

References

External links

* �
official Real del Monte website
* �
Pueblos Magicos de Mexico: Real del Monte

Cornish-Mexico.org

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mineral Del Monte Municipalities of Hidalgo (state) Populated places in Hidalgo (state) Mining communities in Mexico Pueblos Mágicos Cornish diaspora